ZAMARKAND

Guide: Palace of the Dead

The Palace of the Dead is an ever-changing dungeon whose architecture is never quite the same each time players enter to explore its depths. All players will begin at level one, and only by fighting the enemies within will they be able to gain the strength and experience needed to explore its shadowy depths. Each level will take you down 10 floors at a time ending with a boss finale. Once floors have been cleared you’ll be able to choose to start from floor 1 or 51 continuously. You can join potd either with a fixed party of friends or with a matched party of 3 other random adventurers, for the brave there is also an option to go solo. From floor 100 to 200 you’ll only be able to enter with a fixed team, these floors will increase in difficulty and with each full team wipe you’ll start over from floor 51.

Palace of the Dead is great for anyone…

Wanting to try out their skills before committing to a class. If you enter from floor 51-60 you’ll have access to all the class specific skills up to lvl 60. You can enter with any class, at any lvl and your lvl will be adjusted inside the deep dungeon. That way you can try all classes and see what they would be like at a higher lvl.

Wanting skill practise.

Level up a dps character instead of waiting around for dungeons to pop up as the waiting times can be quite tedious.

Getting fun and random treasure loot from the accursed hoard found inside the deep dungeon.

Wanting a challenge by reaching floor 200

It is however important to consider, that lvling your character solely in POTD might cause some confusion once you take that class into a dungeon or a raid. The mechanics differ and your class role will be much more important to fulfill outside of POTD.

This sounds great! How do I get started?

You can access Palace of the Dead once you reach lvl 17 and have finished “into a Copper Hell” quest. Once you are ready, Nojiro in New Gridania will offer up the quest “the House that death built” outside of the Gridanian inn, this quest will lead you to South Shroud Quarry mill where the expedition to our favorite deep dungeon begins.

Once you’ve talked to Wood Wailer Expeditionary Captain you will see the Deep Dungeon popup. Here you will find an overview of your current aethergear status and choose how to enter the deep dungeon. You have two save slots available, to enter a dungeon with a new team or a new class will demand that you first reset your progress on one save file. If you have cleared up until floor 51, you will always be able to start from floor 51 even if you remove all save files. Note that matched parties will often throw you in with a random amount of healers, tanks and dps! There are no fixed party rules for this game mode.

I’ve unlocked it, now what?

Once you have access to potd you’ll start from floor 1 working your way down down down. If you are only looking to lvl your character I suggest continuously repeating floor 51-60. You can repeat floor 51-60 once you have reached and cleared it once. Inside the

dungeon you will be met with a small overview screen for your current character. The gear window explains which lvl your current gear is. The higher +, the better. You will gain +1 from silver chests inside potd so make sure not to skip them. Once you have strengthened your aetherpool armor to +30 in addition to clearing floor 50 of the Palace of the Dead, you can receive an aetherpool weapon to be used outside of the instance by speaking with the NPC E-Una-Kotor in the South Shroud. It’s very shiny >hinthint.

From the overview screen you will also be able to see what items you and your team have picked up on the way. These items will be reset each time you exit the deep dungeon. You can hover over the items to read their description in game. I recommend using the pomander of rage to clear floors. One Rage pomander will let you quickly clear one floor, maybe two as you will be transformed into an NPC that one hits all mobs(Note that this will not work if the party has a knock back debuff active) The party can keep up to 3 of each pomander, if you find yourself wanting to pick up more, you can use the pomander in your inventory first.

Moving to lower floors

Floors are generated at random, and players may only progress by locating and activating the Cairn of Passage stone on each floor. These stones have three phases, and will always be inactive when arriving at a new floor. Before the stone can be fully activated, players must defeat the enemies that appear on the floor. As the phases progress, the color of the stone’s map icon will change, and the perimeter around the stone will glow when it becomes fully activated. There is no need to kill all enemies, you will be notified once the Cairn of Passage is activated by a text notice on your screen.

In addition to resurrection items and actions, players can use a Cairn of Return to raise all KO’d players. These stones, like the Cairn of Passage, have three phases of activation and can only be used when fully activated. The stone will be inactive when arriving at a new floor. Players must defeat the enemies that appear on the floor before the stone can be fully activated. As the phases progress, the color of the stone’s map icon will change, and the stone itself will glow when it becomes fully activated.

Traps and floor effects

As players progress, they will arrive at floors with traps that will be set off when walked across. These traps are invisible unless a player has a special item which can reveal their locations. In addition to traps, some floors have the below effects which may benefit or provide some challenge to the player’s ability to progress. Some debuffs and buffs will also be applied at random for some floors, these will persist until you move on to another floor.

Loot -The Accursed hoard

While exploring the Palace of the Dead, players will, on occasion, discover hidden treasure known as the Accursed Hoard. Upon saving progress and exiting the Palace of the Dead, players can take this treasure to the Expedition Bishop at Quarrymill in the South Shroud to have it appraised and discover what lies within.

Boss Fights

Each boss has a specific mechanic to it, so do several of the mobs you’ll meet inside the dungeon. You will learn as you go, but if you want to be prepared take a look here:

Floor 60 Boss:The Black Rider (Headless Horseman) – Drops large purple pools that cause bleeding and small yellow puffs that explode for 10k. Also uses Valfodr, a line indicating he’s about to charge. Move close to the boss and don’t drag Valfodr over another party member.

Floor 70 Boss:Yaquaru (Leviathan Type) – Casts Douse, a point-blank AoE which leaves a pool of water on the ground that provides the boss with a haste buff while inside. Also frequently inflicts the tank with Heavy to hinder efforts to move the boss out of these pools.

Floor 80 Boss:Gudanna (Behemoth Type) – Frequently casts Thunderbolt (2000 damage frontal cone AoE) toward the tank. Uses Charybdis at regular intervals, which covers a large circular area of the arena in swirling black plumes that will inflict a high damage, long-duration Windburn that should be quickly removed. Charybdis will remain in place for a long time, and suck in any players who wander too close. This is normally followed by Trounce, during which the boss will move to a cardinal direction of the arena and cover the majority of it with a frontal cone AoE. The party should follow the boss as he moves and stand behind him or to the side, reminiscent of Chudo-Yudo’s Swinge from Stone Vigil. Casts Meteor during the last 10% (Similar to Ultima or Zantetsuken, but not a guaranteed death). This is the first new boss which presents a credible threat.

Floor 90 Boss:The Godmother (Mom Bomb) – Small, untargettable bombs will appear frequently throughout the fight and create small explosions around the center of the arena. Grey Bombs will spawn occasionally and should be killed before they can explode. The boss will regularly cast Sap (a circular AoE) at non-tanking party members. Every 2 minutes, The Godmother will begin to channel Massive Burst, which hits the entire party for 80% of maximum hp (to a minimum of 1 hp), and can be stunned. If in a party, only use stuns to interrupt the cast, to prevent immunity. If solo without stun, knock the Giddy Bomb toward the boss, being careful not to get it killed in the smaller bombs’ explosions. It is very easy to wipe at this bossTank limit breaks do not reduce Massive Burst damage.

Floor 100 Boss:Nybeth Obdilord (Necromancer) – Regularly attacks the tank with Abyss, an AoE nuke similar to Dark, while occasionally inflicting minor party-wide damage with Word of Pain. Also casts Shackle, a line-based attack targetted on a random non-tank party member. His primary mechanic is Summon Darkness, which will spawn 2-3 Palace Corse style zombies around him. Use Pomanders of Resolution to quickly handle these adds, and continue use Kuribu’s Heavenly Judge on Nybeth for high damage. Most parties will need three of these to cover the entire fight. At low health the boss will begin to cast Doom – a wide cone AoE which will kill any player caught in the effect. For this reason Nybeth should be tanked in the center, not the edge.

To find more information about mechanics and boss fights, take a look here: